Continuing the discussion from Please review this report from Scanduzzi Krebs, and weigh in on another 6 months with them:
I’ve been chatting with people over the last few weeks and I feel we now have consensus that we should renew this contract. Unless there are other objections in this thread before the end of today, I’ll consider that my authorization to run the paperwork to renew this tomorrow.
Were Matt McKenna’s @mpmckenna8 points and those of others addressed about being sure we are ready to renew the contract immediately, or could we use a pause to re-group/prepare better given how fast the money flows? I personally defer my own judgement to you all but just from reading the thread it seemed there were concerns.
From my reading of what people said (and of course please excuse my ignorance!!), the SK resources were inefficiently used at times because things went slow to prepare documents/statements on time and that in specific areas we could really use consultants to help us prepare faster in the future (as these cheaper resources act as multipliers for our own volunteer efforts). I also read that certain big grants can’t even be applied to at this moment because we dont have our financials documented well enough. Could this in particular change with a pause? I guess I’m also wondering can we look back and identify exact places where we could have used these less expensive resources such as accountants or consultants and have them ready to go this time? Also, if we cant apply for these big grants due to our financial documents not being in order, then are we destined to underutilize SK during this next round (if the focus will thus only be these smaller individual donors)? And then if that’s the case would a month or two to focus on getting to a place where we can apply to the big grants be worth it (IF that is even possible in 1-2 months using accountants and consultants)
Im not sure about the transparency thing, I thought that was a misread/miscommunication. I think @mpmckenna8 was talking about the ROI, and why we cant apply for big grants because we dont have financial documents in order (is that really true?). @ruthgrace
As an aside to others questions I was reiterating above - sure, I can try to help in the capacity I have - what exactly do we need financially to be able to apply to big grants? Seems applying to these big grants is how we get the full ROI from SK.
We’re on hold while we wait for accurate financials, which ultimately means a statement of cash flow and a balance sheet. @gaardn is the one who took that on sometime last year, but I understand @themanmaran is helping out now too. I don’t know what they need help with; I’ve been unable to get that information during the weekly fundraising meetings, so we’ve been working in a total vacuum of information there. Maybe others would have better luck?
I think it’s not a bad idea to pause until we have the financials in order
(with the exception of anything gala related since that’s happening end of month)
You have to ask the treasurer for this and why it is this way.
Maybe asking Matt is best. I’m just reading what he said here:
Last I see in that thread is Matt generating tasks and Victoria asking him to help. I don’t see Matt asking for further info or action.
Has he asked you to represent his concerns? Do you share his concerns? I’m always confused when someone elects themselves to represent a 3rd party, im not sure to whom I should address anything, nor is it clear how the self-appointed representative can determine if the claim was satiated.
He also stated
This was a good intended but serious misunderstanding, and I really wish he had asked me on the spot why.
I don’t have access to all the accounts. I have access to all the cash boxes. See finance-wg on slack previous to january. I also have access to stripe data, but cannot be used for this.
What I don’t have access to is the bank account data, which was the first half of that conversation. I’ve been trying to get it since January so we can apply for grants. I was frustrated and complaining to someone else in the only way that I have learned gets results here: loudly.
I was stating that, if there’s a trust issue, it’s seriously misplaced, as I have access to many things like cash directly. I did list things to which I had access because it was ridiculous to be trusted with these things but not the bank account data.
Regardless, if you want financial reporting, you need financial data. We need people to help get the bank account data so we can see what is going on financially with this place.
If you want to know what is happening, just ask, but be prudent, because watch the eye-popping here: We were put in front of $1.5 million dollars of city and state funding. I doubt we’ll get this one, but yeah, we need financials in place, there’s a lot of money out. I mean A LOT. But we can’t announce that we APPLIED for 1.5mm. People will start spending it before they understand the process we are following. We are practicing to gain this as a skill so it will pay off. By magic it could pay off tomorrow, but this is usually unlikely.
And there needs to be some secrecy. A lot of data should be kept confidential, like how much a person donates. It’s just not needed to be public data.
But getting a list of every in-flow and out-flow is easy, and scrubbing personal data is super easy, stripe does it by default.
Please start there, as we have been asking. You are noting we don’t have financial reports in order. Correct, but we have been trying since January. The lack of efficiency is coming from not getting data. We’ve been asking this for 3 months, and we haven’t had a substantial report except from pemulis in ages.
We are saying that we heard you, but the request is not to the fundraising team. And it’s frustrating that you are not hearing it. If you want financial reporting, talk to the treasurer. The fundraising team does need the financial reports, and the treasurer is on the fundraising team, and we still can’t get them.
I’ve been asking for numbers, and offering to help do the reports, which was refused or ignored. I’ve mentioned it quietly to people I think can help, who were then also refused. I then seeded the requests for reports into the Tuesday meetings to make people aware of these issues. I complained loudly in the hackatorium. I’ve been mentioning it at least once a day since Sunday.
Can you please take a step to help? Please? I literally cannot do anything else beyond hacking Well Fargo.
I detect some tension here but I can assure you none on my side. I heard some questions asked and then never heard anything back (was waiting to hear actually) so was curious if they had been addressed yet - especially since I read that consensus was reached. …These aren’t “tough” questions and they’re also sincere. In fact coming from me they’re “no brainers” (dont mean to humble brag)
A lot of us are frustrated about this whole situation, myself included.
The “tension” is frustration which is directed elsewhere, not at you. However you have asked the questions to which everyone, including us, wants answers.
@rando - I’ve just started work on this last week, and it’s taken some time to get everything matched up between donation sources & account totals. I have initial numbers, but I would prefer everything foots before I share on discuss.
I’ll have draft balance sheets / income statements for FY 12/31/18 and Q 3/31/18 by this weekend.
Getting them fixed in quickbooks will take a bit longer. The existing import from Wells Fargo/Paypal have been done incorrectly and are counting against each other. (QB doesn’t have ‘git checkout prior’ 
)
Hey. This seems tense. Let’s be extra careful with our words and who we are specifically directing them at.
Just post the raw input data please. If you dont know how to sanitize it, send it to me directly and I will. I already have some of it, it’s just not enough to show a clear picture.
QBO cannot be the source until it is reconciled, and for that we need the raw data, so QBO isn’t even live as far as I’m concerned.
For the sake of being annoying: I bet paypal sweeps were double counted.
I don’t think we ought to pause S|K until we figure out our "financials’.
I think we oughta continue with S|K and use the loss aversion - that we’re paying for a service but not getting full use out of it, as urgency to figure out the ‘financials’.
That was my intial thought, unless it changes SK’s proposed game plan. I.E. if the grants (the big thing we are after) get pushed to round 3. Also would be useful to calculate the value of hiring someone to get us to where we need to be in terms of these financial documents.
How long should it take to get the requisite documents that S|K needs?
@rando When I provided you with years of complete data you claimed it was enough to generate balance sheets and P&Ls, then did nothing with it. Had you communicated you needed more I would have bent over backwards to see that you got what you needed to generate financial reports, short of actually providing you access to Noisebridge’s financial accounts which you do not need. You’re vindictive, violent, controlling, and reckless, so I don’t feel comfortable giving you meaningful access where you could do real damage.
Plenty of people able to generate reports have full access to Noisebridge’s financial accounts and have repeatedly volunteered to do this, Victoria included. She apparently attends Tuesday meetings every week while I am unable, so a quick login to Wells Fargo for an easy update would be no trouble for her - there is no vacuum and she knows this.
For the time being I’m doing my best to be afk from Noisebridge as I feel unsafe with @rando around both online and in the space with his unpredictable raging fits of verbal and physical abuse, and his failure to respect boundaries such as not sending me creepy cryptic messages during the 30-day period he was asked to leave. @tdfischer’s desire to protect her abusive friend makes my skin crawl and highlights a more significant cultural suffocation Noisebridge will need to address because it’s a major reason for the post-fracture hacker exodus.
Be excellent to each other. We’re all here by choice.
I’m so tired. Would you like me to leave? I won’t come back, if that helps. I was hoping you and I could talk in person so I could apologise for my behavior in that thread, hear your side, learn what I can do to cure the harms I’ve effected, figure out how we can all move forward. But we can have this in public too, that’s fine.
I’m tired, too.
I know you feel your intentions are good and you’re fighting tooth and nail for Noisebridge’s future, but it feels awful I’m one of your targets. I’m discouraged and although I still love Noisebridge, I’ve lost some trust in our community to protect those that are harmed. Do what you need, just don’t throw other people under the bus that are working towards the same goal. The only way Noisebridge works is when we support each other.
I’ll do what’s needed when y’all are ready for round 2 of S|K and continue helping out with treasury & admin tasks. It can’t all be me doing the heavy lifting, though. Many hands make light work, and I need some help with a few big tasks like financial report generation and I’m grateful when others volunteer to handle these because it shows they truly care for Noisebridge and want to see it through to its next chapter.